Our mission is to advance the cause of literature and reading in our region and to defend free expression everywhere. - PEN New England

The obligation to choose either the left or the right and to be politically correct has replaced independent thinking; if the voice of the writer is not swept into the global chorus, and if he fails to give his allegiance to a political party, he will be marginalized. - Gao Xingjian, “Literature as Testimony: the Search for Truth”

Most of my criticism and satire have been directed unequivocally against academe and its literary established order. It is my contention that, contrary to its assertion, PEN does not defend free expression everywhere and, in fact, manifests with that regard viewpoint discrimination and is not therefore an organization of ethical integrity.
Should one be surprised that a tenured professor, founder of Suffolk University Poetry Center, and former chairman of PEN New England cannot fathom Gao Xingjian’s above statement, to which one ought to add “if he also fails to avoid being critical of the literary established order, he will be marginalized.”